Tag Archives: contemporary

Book Review: A World Away

Posted in Audiobooks, Books by

A World Away CoverBook: A World Away by Nancy Grossman|Narrated by Jessica Lawshe

Published July 2012 by Listening Library|Run Time: 10 hours, 41 minutes

Source: Audiobook|Audible.com

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Goodreads|Nancy Grossman’s Website

Summary: A summer of firsts

Sixteen-year-old Eliza Miller has never made a phone call, never tried on a pair of jeans, never sat in a darkened theater waiting for a movie to start. She’s never even talked to someone her age who isn’t Amish, like her.

A summer of good-byes

When she leaves her close-knit family to spend the summer as a nanny in suburban Chicago, a part of her can’t wait to leave behind everything she knows. She can’t imagine the secrets she will uncover, the friends she will make, the surprises and temptations of a way of life so different from her own.

A summer of impossible choice

Every minute Eliza spends with her new friend Josh feels as good as listening to music for the first time, and she wonders whether there might be a place for her in his world. But as summer wanes, she misses the people she has left behind, and the plain life she once took for granted. Eliza will have to decide for herself where she belongs. Whichever choice she makes, she knows she will lose someone she loves.

A World Away was such a beautiful story!  Every time I read (or in this case, listen to) a story involving the Amish, I always want to read more, because every single time, I find myself completely pulled in.  I don’t know what it is about a coming of age story when it involved an Amish girl, but I always get sucked in!

In a lot of ways, A World Away is a predictable story.  Eliza has a boy she likes at home, and meets a new boy when working as a nanny, and has feelings for both of them.  She experiences things that are completely new to her, and sees how different life is in Chicago.  She has to decide if she wants to stay in Chicago, and leave her old life behind, or if she wants to go back to her Amish life, and leave everything in Chicago behind.  She learns family secrets, and meets a long-lost aunt she never knew she had.

And I didn’t care.  AT ALL.  A World Away is written so beautifully that I didn’t care if I predicted things before they happened.  There were times when I was trying so hard to not start crying, because I don’t want people to think I’m weird when I start crying in public because of a book I’m listening to.

Speaking of audiobooks, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Jessica Lawshe as the narrator.  I can’t think of a better person to have narrated A World Away, and there were times when I felt like she WAS Eliza.  I’m not kidding when I say that PERFECT doesn’t even begin to describe how great she did narrating.

Random Side Note: Her voice really reminds me of Natalie Portman’s voice.

Listening to A World Away really made the book for me, because I really felt like I was experiencing things as Eliza experienced things, and I was right there with her when she learned the truth of why her mom didn’t want her to go away, and when she visited her Aunt Beth before knowing that Beth was her aunt, who was shunned, and that she was named after her aunt.

Final Thoughts:

A World Away is such a beautiful story, and I am so glad I listened to it!  Words can’t adequately express how much I loved and enjoyed this book, and I can’t wait to see what Grossman writes next.  A World Away gets 5 stars.

Book Review: Epic Fail

Posted in Books by

Epic Fail CoverBook: Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik

Published August 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers|Pages: 304

Source: E-book|Nook Store

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

Goodreads|Claire LaZebnik’s Website

Summary: Will Elise’s love life be an epic win or an epic fail?

At Coral Tree Prep in Los Angeles, who your parents are can make or break you. Case in point:

As the son of Hollywood royalty, Derek Edwards is pretty much prince of the school—not that he deigns to acknowledge many of his loyal subjects.

As the daughter of the new principal, Elise Benton isn’t exactly on everyone’s must-sit-next-to-at-lunch list.

When Elise’s beautiful sister catches the eye of the prince’s best friend, Elise gets to spend a lot of time with Derek, making her the envy of every girl on campus. Except she refuses to fall for any of his rare smiles and instead warms up to his enemy, the surprisingly charming social outcast Webster Grant. But in this hilarious tale of fitting in and flirting, not all snubs are undeserved, not all celebrity brats are bratty, and pride and prejudice can get in the way of true love for only so long.

Epic Fail was really cute and it was a fun read!

Epic Fail is predictable in a lot of ways.  Elise is the new girl, surrounded by people who have a lot more money than she does.  She (SPOILER ALERT!) ends up with the guy in the end, but kind of likes this other guy first before realizing he’s an idiot.

But I still liked it.  There’s just something fun and cute about Elise realizing that people aren’t what they seem, and to look beyond first impressions.  I also liked the relationship Elise and Juliana had- it’s really nice to see siblings get along instead of hating each other or seeing each other as a rival…actually, they don’t seem to get along with their younger sister, but I’m an only child so that’s not a relationship I’m familiar with.

I’m not the biggest fan of Elise and Derek.  I really felt like they were together just to be together, and for me, they didn’t have any chemistry.  When they finally get together, I was like…”that’s it?”  I just found myself not caring about their relationship.  Plus, the ending was sort of…abrupt.

Elise’s parents were a bit much.  I liked what we saw of her dad, and it seems like they have a great relationship…it’s just too bad we don’t see a lot of it, because I like seeing great parent-child relationships in books.  As for Elise’s mom: she’s this strange combination of strict parent/principal who seems to dislike how snobby people are while sucking up to Derek and his parents.  I totally wish we saw why she was pushing Derek and Elise together, because her obsession with Elise and Derek dating for no apparent reason was just really weird.  In general, the characters were okay, and they did what they were supposed to.

Final Thoughts:

I’m not really sure what else to say about Epic Fail.  It’s cute and fluffy, which is perfectly fine, and I did like it…just not as much as I was expecting.  Epic Fail gets 3 stars.